Group Urges Status Quo For Agencies

A group representing 200 savings institutions attacked the federal government and fellow thrifts Wednesday for trying to rein in the U.S. agencies that finance housing loans.

If organizations like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are totally cut loose from the government, ''We'd have a hell of a time getting mortgage money in a vast geographical area of the country,'' predicted Joseph R. Reppert, president of AmeriFirst Mortgage Corp. of Miami and a founding member of the Secondary Mortgage Market Support Group.

''You'd never get a 15- or 30-year mortgage again,'' he said. ''You'd only get adjustable-rate loans, and you wouldn't get anything in economically depressed Texas at all.''

The support group's organizers said at a news conference that they set up their organization two months ago to fight what they see as a movement in Washington to ''privatize'' the government's mortgage agencies.

The chief targets are Fannie Mae, formally known as the Federal National Mortgage Association; Freddie Mac, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp.; and Ginnie Mae, the Government National Mortgage Corp.

All were set up by the government to help speed the nation's flow of mortgage money, usually by buying home loans that had been made by thrift institutions. The agencies' purchases make it possible for the thrifts to quickly turn around and offer even more mortgages.

The agencies get their money to buy the mortgages by borrowing cash from private financiers, using their government links to secure lower loan rates and better terms than private firms in the secondary mortgage market business can.

As a result, the Reagan administration and some private groups -- including other savings and loans and savings banks -- have complained the federal agencies are doing work that the private sector should handle.

Members of the support group disagreed.

''How many loans would have been made in Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas if it were up to a couple of portfolio lenders in California and Solomon Brothers to decide who gets the money?'' asked Reppert. Solomon Brothers is a major brokerage and investment house in New York.